Stay
by YourLogicIsFlawless
Summary: He reminded her of the ocean. Pushing and pulling at her emotions, and never coming back. (One sided Calypso/Odysseus.)


**So we're reading The Odyssey in my English class. Ha jokes on you guys (my school), already read it. Anyways one of the assignments was to write a short story based on a scene from the book. I actually liked the way it turned out so I'm posting it.**

~o~

Odysseus reminded her of the sea. He was beautiful and refreshing to the eyes, yet wild and untamed below the surface. The way his words seemed to roll off his tongue with ease always amazed her, like waves cresting just before they hit the shore.

 _She wanted him to stay._

For seven years she housed him on her island as her guest. _Kidnapped_. At times the guilt of it all would crash done like the breakers on the shoreline. How could she let her selfish loneliness take what was rightfully another woman's? Couldn't she empathize with the mortal's pain? But that was it wasn't it? She knew she craved the companionship of another, but to have someone suffer as she did? Well that was just made her "guest" that much sweeter. Yes, at times she felt guilty; however, those times didn't last long.

 _All she wanted was for him to stay._

She didn't understand. Wasn't she beautiful enough? Did she not care for him? Make him her sun? Her moon? Her stars? She loved him with every fiber of her being, he knew that. In fact he reveled in it. Yet he still wanted her. _Penelope_. How could he choose a mortal woman over her a goddess, daughter of a titan? She gave him all her love. He only gave her rejection.

 _She didn't understand. Why wouldn't he stay?_

Curse Hermes. Curse Zeus. Curse Athene. Curse Penelope! Let all their souls rot in Tartarus. How could they do this to her? First they banish her to this unholy island, leave her craving for just a glimpse of a god, a mortal, a human. Now this, forcing her to give up her sea, her Odysseus. What kind of vile creatures where they?

 _Why wouldn't they let him stay?_

" _O forlorn man, be still. Here you need grieve no more; I have pondered it, and I shall help you go…"_

It killed her to build the raft. To construct the thing that would take him away from her with her own two hands _. "If you love something, set it free."_ How could she allow herself to send him away? She put up no fight, gave no protest. She only asked why, and he gave her his answer, his words rolling through her ears like the waves. _"If it comes back it's yours to keep."_ How could she cast him off into the sea and never see that face again (outside her dreams.) Why could she never stop helping? Helping her father in the war. Helping her island grow and flourish. Helping Odysseus regain his health. Helping the one she loved leave her forever. _"If it doesn't, it never was."_

 _Could you really blame her for wanting him to stay?_

She stayed on the beach, watching him, until the horizon swallowed him whole. She watched him slowly drift away from her. With every gust of wind pushing into the make-shift sail and every drop of water lapping against the coarse wood of the raft caused a piece of her heart to go with him, dropping to the bottom of the sea like a sinking ship. In that moment she wanted to forget him. Forget his smile and his laugh, his clever words and aggravating smirk. She just wanted to forget.

 _She knew he wouldn't stay._

Odysseus reminded her of the sea. His characteristics were synonymous to the rolling blue waves of the Mediterranean. She knew he wasn't coming back, anyone could see that. She knew he never would have stayed, as much as she tried to persuade him otherwise. She would never beg, of course, a goddess does not grovel, no matter what the circumstances. She went back to her cave that night, pondering her emotions and sorting through her thoughts. She never did come to a sophisticated conclusion as to why her love left her. All she can say now is that Odysseus was a wave, one of many. And the waves always came back, pushing and pulling towards the shore. You just never got the same wave twice.

 _She guessed she couldn't blame him, for not wanting to stay_.

~o~

 **I really hope I get an A.**

 **Anyways, if you read it thanks! I hope you guys liked it.**


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